Appeals and Petitions

At times a student may need to make an appeal to official departmental or university regulations. Other times a student may feel that he or she was treated improperly. Some of the potential situations that students might find themselves in and instructions on how to attempt to resolve those situations are discussed below.

Curriculum Appeals

The ISU Catalog designates the requirements for baccalaureate degrees in electrical and computer engineering. If a student has extraordinary personal or academic reasons to ask for an alteration to the official curriculum, the student should talk to his or her academic adviser about the situation.

If the adviser and the student decide it is petitionable, the student is required to write a formal petition to be forwarded to the ECpE Curriculum Committee.

A petition is—by definition—an individual request. It is not precedent setting. Both the action requested and the reasons are considered when decisions are made.

When a student has a problem with a faculty or staff member, we encourage students to meet with the individual in an informal setting to try and resolve the problem. If a solution is not reached during this informal process, the student can move to a formal process.

There are formal processes for Student Employee Grievances, Non-academic Grievances, Academic Grievances, and Harassment/Sexual Harassment/Racial and Ethnic Harassment and Hazing Grievances. These formal processes are outlined in the Student Handbook found on the Dean of Students’ website.

For more help in working through these issues, the student may want to check with his or her academic adviser to discuss this process.